Little Venice Restaurant, a Binghamton staple of Italian food founded in the same year as Binghamton University, offers a $15 three-course lunch and $25 three-course dinner for the spring 2022 Restaurant Week. On a rainy Thursday evening, my photographer, Sarah, and I made our way over to 111 Chenango St. to enjoy a hearty, delicious dinner.

Like the fall edition of Restaurant Week, Sarah and I agreed upfront to split each course in order to be able to appreciate as much of the food as we could. We started by ordering the bruschetta and fried mozzarella wedges for our appetizers. The fried mozzarella wedges were perfectly cooked — crispy on the outside, melted and soft in the middle and served piping hot. The bruschetta consisted of a pile of fresh tomatoes on two pieces of crusty garlic bread. It’s safe to say we thoroughly enjoyed our first course.

For the entree course, we ordered the chicken cutlet parmigiana, served with a bowl of homemade spaghetti, and the ravioli. However, we ordered each of these dishes with different sauces than the house-made tomato sauce offered on the menu. The house-made sauce — while also very good, as I remember from another time dining there — and the house-made meat logs offered with the ravioli contain pork, which my photographer cannot eat. Our waitress was incredibly accommodating, offering us other sauce options for our dishes and taking care that everything we ordered could fit our dietary needs. We got the chicken parmigiana and fresh pasta with marinara sauce, and the ravioli with a garlic and butter sauce. As with our appetizer, this course was delicious.

The chicken parmigiana was wonderful, with the perfect ratio of sauce, melted mozzarella and crispiness of the breading. The house-made pasta was probably one of my favorite parts. I don’t often have the chance to eat fresh, homemade pasta, but it truly makes all the difference. The ravioli dish was also incredible, thanks entirely to our waitress’ suggestion to try it with garlic and butter. Usually, ravioli is not something I would order at a restaurant — it’s often not my first choice. However, since it was full of creamy ricotta and served in that delicious garlic and butter sauce, I savored each and every bite.

The third and final course, dessert, was a great way to end our meal. We decided to order the house-made tiramisu and the cannolis. Each were served in the perfect portion — fairly small, but just enough to satisfy a sweet tooth without making you way too full after a big dinner. Tiramisu is a personal favorite dessert of mine, as I adore anything sweet and coffee-flavored. Little Venice Restaurant’s tiramisu was light and fluffy, super sweet with the perfect coffee aftertaste. The cannolis were also good, with a soft and flaky shell and just the right amount of filling.

Cannoli.

Little Venice Restaurant has a cozy, homey ambience — pairing wonderfully with a menu full of pasta, parmigiana, pizza and homemade foods galore. It reminds me of all the local, family-owned Italian restaurants I’ve loved at home on Long Island, which is perfect for BU students — who are mostly from downstate — looking for a little piece of home in Broome County. The waitstaff and owners could not have been friendlier, and Sarah and I enjoyed every minute we were there. Little Venice Restaurant is a place with something to offer everyone, from its affordable prices to delicious food to welcoming environment.